“Christ did not die for the good and beautiful. It is easy enough to die for the good and beautiful; the hard thing is to die for the […]
Japanese literature
The Samurai
“A man’s life is like a piece of string. No matter how carefully you coil it, it will always come undone in the end.” Chapter 1: The Mission […]
Japanese literature
The Little House
“A house is more than just walls and a roof—it holds the echoes of lives lived within.” Chapter 1: The House on the Hill The story opens with […]
German literature
Morenga
“The dead are not dead, they live in the living.” Morenga by Uwe Timm is a historical novel set during the Herero and Nama uprising (1904–1908) in German […]
German literature
The End of Days
“Every life has many possible endings, but only one true one.” Chapter 1: The Infant’s Death The novel opens in early 20th-century Galicia, where a Jewish family mourns […]
German literature
Visitation
“The gardener knows that nothing lasts. The gardener knows better than anyone that everything passes.” Visitation by Jenny Erpenbeck is a haunting, fragmented novel that traces the lives […]
German literature
The Emperor’s Tomb
“The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.” Chapter 1: The Early Years The novel opens with the protagonist, Franz Ferdinand Trotta, reflecting on his […]
German literature
Radetzky March
“The world was still in order.” — Joseph Roth, Radetzky March Part One: The Rise of the Trotta Family The novel opens with the Battle of Solferino in […]
German literature
Before the Storm
“The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” — Theodor Fontane Chapter 1: The Setting The novel opens in the winter of 1812-1813 in rural Brandenburg, Prussia. […]
German literature
Austerlitz
“And so they are ever returning to us, the dead.” Part One The narrator recounts his encounters with Jacques Austerlitz, a man he first meets in the 1960s […]